Navigate the impact of the France e-Invoicing Mandate with Basware: stay informed, stay compliant.
After the official announcement by the French Government to postpone the mandatory B2B e-invoicing and B2C e-reporting mandates, take note of the updated tentative dates you need to be aware of:
Since 2022, Basware has been committed to delivering a mandate-compliant e-invoicing solution in France as an accredited Partner on the Dematerialization Platform (PDP), recognized by the French General Directorate of Public Finance. Basware has received confirmation from DGFIP that our PDP application is complete and accepted. The final choices for PDPs will be made and announced soon by DGFIP.
We will keep you updated on key developments related to the mandate, ensuring the delivery of a fully compliant e-invoicing solution for the France e-invoicing mandate. Learn more about Basware as your PDP.
Over the past decade, the French government has launched strategic initiatives to increase its efficiency in collecting VAT. Technologies designed to achieve this goal are e-invoicing and e-reporting. According to legal order n°2021-1190, VAT-liable business documents, such as e-invoices, must be registered on and reported to the governmental platform Portail public de facturation (PPF) or public billing portal.
As a member of the FNFE, the official French National Forum for Electronic Invoicing, and member of the DGFIP PDP working group, Basware closely monitors mandate developments, ensuring a compliant solution for customers from day one.
Companies subject to VAT in France will need to be able to receive e-invoices in the mandated formats UBL 2.1, UN/CEFACT CII, and Factur-X. Make sure your AP solution can receive and process the permitted formats.
The mandate deadlines for B2B to send e-invoices are: September 1, 2026 for large enterprise and mid-sized companies, September 1, 2027 for small and medium-sized businesses.
E-invoicing isn't mandatory for B2C and cross-border transactions. However, French companies must submit e-reporting files for these transactions, including specified data points, to the government platform. The deadline is four days after the week's end for standard reporting scheme companies and within seven days after the month's end for others.
E-invoices and e-reporting data can be submitted directly to the government platform PPF (Portail public de facturation) or through an accredited service provider, known as PDP (plateforme de dématérialisation partenaire). This 'Y-model' means companies no longer send invoices directly to customers but via PPF or PDP.
Following the deadlines, only specific e-invoice formats—UBL 2.1, UN/CEFACT CII, and Factur-X—will be accepted. Paper and basic PDF invoices won't be valid in France for domestic B2B e-invoicing. Electronic invoices must be archived electronically, requiring a solution for electronic invoice archiving.
The mandate includes managing the invoice lifecycle, requiring regular status updates to the government platform PPF. These updates can be sent directly or through a PDP. Mandatory statuses include submitted, refused, rejected, and received, while others like disputed and approved are optional.
We recommend auditing your existing business processes and applications. Access whether the mandate requires new actions in your role as a supplier or buyer and evaluate how well your existing systems support potential changes. Simultaneously, analyze your customers and suppliers, starting with the most critical ones. Determine if they fall within the mandate scope and understand their invoice volumes.
Prioritize a discussion with your Basware Account Manager to define the optimal solution for your organization. Secure pricing for implementation and establish a project schedule to ensure a seamless transition.
The regulations mandate the inclusion of specific data items on all invoices, such as:
We've observed that some organizations may not consistently collect this data. Therefore, we highly recommend Basware customers assess their readiness to include this information in their invoices.
The implementation of regulations in a market can significantly impact the customer-supplier relationship. It's crucial to communicate with your strategic/critical customers and suppliers, ensuring they are aware of and preparing alongside your own efforts.
We've provided a list of key resources for navigating e-invoicing and the France e-invoicing mandate.
Stay compliant effortlessly with Basware, leveraging the world's largest globally compliant open business network, the Basware Network, ensuring seamless connectivity to the government portal PPF. Our comprehensive compliance solution addresses the complexity of invoicing and tax compliance, offering a singular, all-encompassing approach.
Why Basware? Our experts are ready to discuss how Basware can guide you to compliance with the France e-invoicing mandate, contributing to your business development. For inquiries, email us at francemandate@basware.com.
We're dedicated to keeping you informed throughout our France e-invoicing solution development, testing, and delivery phases. The sooner you start preparing for this mandatory reform, the better positioned you'll be to leverage it for future business development.
To discuss your needs and how to get started, contact our solutions experts today to address the impact of the mandate on your business.
Only structured formats will be considered valid e-invoices for fiscal purposes under the French B2B mandate. This means that paper and simple PDF invoices will no longer be valid in France for B2B e-Invoicing.
The DGFIP(Direction générale des Finances publiques; translates as General Directorate of Public Finance) is planning to regulate the use of a number of formats, as long as they are compatible with the European Norm.The initially permitted three formats are UBL 2.1, UN/CEFACT CII and Factur-X.
PDP stands for Plateformes de dématérialisation partenaires, which translates to partner digitalization/dematerialization platform. Basware has received confirmation from DGFIP that our PDP application is complete and accepted – as no platform can pretend to be registered or accredited without recognition from the French General Directorate of Public Finance.
PDPs are required to:
PPF stands for Portail public de facturation, which translates as public billing portal. The publicly trusted third party offers free services and concentrates on invoicing and billing data for the tax authorities. The public invoicing portal allows companies to submit invoices, created by them in a structured or mixed format:
The public billing portal also allows you to enter the data online or to upload a PDF file representing the invoice. The data entered (or extracted from the PDF) is then transformed, after validation, into one of the structured formats of the platform.
The corresponding invoice is made available to the recipient without any additional action from the depositor.
E-Invoicing will not be mandatory for B2C and cross-border invoices. However, to get a complete overview of all invoice transactions, the government will require companies to send e-reporting files.
E-reporting requires a specific set of data-points in a specific form and will have to be sent on a recurring basis. Companies will have to be able to produce e-Reporting and send them to the government platform, either directly or through a partner platform (PDP) which can produce these files and deliver them to the government platform. These transactions are affected by e-reporting:
In addition to invoice data, companies will have to transmit the invoice processing statuses to the government platform - directly or via a partner platform.
The invoice lifecycle will guarantee more transparency on the status of operations to the government. Some statuses will be mandatory (invoice submitted, refused, rejected, received) and other will be optional (disputed, approved, etc.).
Since 1st January 2020, e-invoicing in France has been mandatory for all transactions with the public sector (B2G, business-to-government) via the Chorus Pro portal.
Following the mandate timeline, the B2G invoice flows will be using the new e-invoicing system, the Portail public de facturation (PPF). This means 800,000 private entities need to anticipate the obligation to issue B2G invoices via the new e-invoicing landscape. To date, there is still no clarity about potential transition periods for existing Chorus Pro flows.
“It's a wake-up call – there's no time to procrastinate. E-invoicing isn't just about meeting regulations; it's an opportunity to revolutionize and enhance...
The timetable for the mandatory invoicing reform in France is undergoing further modifications. In November 2023, the French Senate proposed a new amendment,...
Electronic invoicing will require companies to transmit invoice statuses, i.e the progress of their processing, to their business partners as well as to the...
